Absence

Usually, when I paint a landscape, I inhabit it with some small creature - a bunny, a mouse, or a weasel. This landscape though is a picture of absence.

Or at least that is how it started. As I painted this piece of gravelled ground, inspired by the alley outside my studio door, I found that what appeared to be an empty space was in fact filled with beauty and complexity. Each trampled blade of grass casts its own shadow. Each speck of gravel catches the light.

The flowers I added are from Ophelia's 'crazy' speech known as Ophelia's garland. Rosemary, pansies, fennel, columbines, daisies and, of course, rue.


This painting is oil on clay board and measures twelve inches square.

Snuggle

The peaches are ripe! These two are having a snuggle. You can see how they looked a couple of months ago here.

This little study is oil on birch panel and measures 6"x8".

Gallery Show

These three paintings will be shown at Woodside Braseth Gallery in Seattle with an opening on Thursday, 12th August from 5:30 - 8:30. Why not drop by and say hello! Here is the gallery link.

Time Flies

Why does it feel good to fly through the sky on a swing? The world blurs
past so quickly that I feel freed from responsibility. I can't stop and
rescue a worm. I can't water the plants. I can't worry about what my
children are eating. Or about whether the rest of the world has enough food, peace, safety. I just fly.
Freedom from interaction with the world. Freedom from responsibility. This sort of freedom is necessarily temporary, but sweet because of its brevity. Just like childhood.


This is also a painting about the speed of life passing - living, flowering,
dying. This painting is called 'Time Flies' or more traditionally 'Tempus
Fugit'. Maybe being on a swing takes away the sting of mortality.


I used my daughter Isobel as a model for this since swings are often part of childhood. I remember teaching her to use them when she was very small. Such a shame that swings on playgrounds now have those uncomfortable, but safe, soft seats. The flowers are hollyhocks which also evoke memories of my childhood in Canada and Britain.
The painting measures 18"x36" and is oil on clayboard.

Peas

Henry and I grow peas every year since they are one of his favorite foods. We pulled the vines out a while ago to make room for the tomatoes. Now it looks like we won't get enough sun to grow good tomatoes this year.
This study is oil on canvas and measure about 8"x10" I think.


I found Henry using my exacto knife the other day. He is such a scientist. This is what he was doing. Everyone enjoys gardening in their own special way.

Places

This painting is called "There Are Two Places For Me". It shows the two opposing worlds I seek out - the beautiful, tumultuous, seductive and overwhelming world and the sheltered and safe world.

In the forest the trees push and crash in a constant struggle for light and life. Flowers overwhelm me with their impossible beauty and complexity. Foxgloves even change the rate of heart beats and used to be used in medicine. They can kill you if you eat them. Or they can save your life. Everything lives so intensly and inevitably dies. It breaks my heart but I can't resist.

In the cool passage between rock walls, far below the forest, there is shelter and peace. I seek this out in my life too. Solitude in my studio. A cosy evening by the fire with my children. The closeness of those I love. A hand held.


I feel like a bear these days. Strong. Occasionally beautiful (though this bear shows her years and is a little world wary.) I feel rare like this Kermode bear. And like her, I know that joy can be fleeting. My gallbladder could end up in an Asian pharmacy any day now.



This painting measures 4'x3' and is oil on canvas.

Spring Fling

There is a day every spring when the world comes to life. On the first warm sunny day people emerge from their houses and remember that they are social creatures. We say hello to our neighbors and wave to fellow gardeners. I love this day.


But because it is early spring the shadows are still deep and cold. Clouds are lurking and evening comes early making the few sunny moments more exciting and urgent.




This painting is four feet wide and is oil on canvas.

Surprises

The birds start singing at 3:30 in the morning these days and wake me up. With a pillow over my head I managed to sleep until 5 this morning and then got up. I think I went outside to look for the cat but soon found myself digging weeds out of the garden in my pajamas and slippers. Somewhere in the jungle of lemon balm seedlings I found this gorgeous flower. It is three feet tall and seems to be an Allium nectaroscordum siculum. How did it get into my garden? Sometimes it is nice to have an appalling memory when it means nice surprises like this. I can also re-read murder mysteries with no danger of knowing who done it.

Tofino Part Two - The Plants

Tofino, on Vancouver Island, is part beach paradise and part temperate rain forest. These trees were on the ocean edge at the Botanical Garden. Everything there is so damp that soil was forming in the branches high above the ground.


This hippy van looks like it will soon rot into soil too.


The Botanical Garden is home to many sculpture installations.


The trail down to Tonquin Beach was beautiful.


Apparently our most exciting plant find was this Vancouver groundcone which grows as a parasite on the roots of Salal.


This tiny flower looked like a small violet. Mum can you remind me what it was? Or anyone?


Wild strawberries were growing in the rocks on the beach.


I can't remember what these little wild aster type flowers were. Anyone?

My mum says:
The flower that looks like a violet is Pinguicula vulgaris and is
called common butterwort although it's not really very common. It can
survive on almost bare rock by 'eating' insects that stick to its
leaves.

The small aster-like flower is, I think, Erigeron peregrinus, the
subalpine daisy, and can also survive on a thin diet.

Thanks Mum!

Animals of the Pacific Coast

I just got back from a trip to Tofino on Vancouver Island. There are dramatic mountains, sandy beaches, crashing waves, and misty, cool, drippy constant moisture there making a happy home for so many plants and animals. Here we are rescuing a butterfly that had fallen into a rain puddle. It was flapping its wings by the time we left but probably didn't benefit from its swim.


And here my mother tries to rescue some tree frog tadpoles from a fresh water puddle that looked like it was drying up. We shouldn't have worried. It rained soon afterward. And rained again and again after that.


This little baby bear was beside the road.


On the beach there were orange and purple starfish


and emerald green sea anemones waiting for the tide to come in.


This sea star was huge.


And the biggest barnacles I have ever seen.


My favorite west coast beach animals - my mum and dad.

Baby Peaches

I planted a peach tree last year because I wanted some height in the garden. I never thought it would actually produce peaches. I come from a cold climate and this is so exciting to me. Aren't they cute?

Striped Tulips

A couple of months ago I made some paintings of crazy mice recklessly having adventures in magnolia trees. I was longing for adventures myself and so I made sure that I left the house more than usual and ventured out into the world. Spring is a time for breaking the cosy routines that we develop through the winter months. I have been having such fun that I haven't been blogging much, and even my painting seems to have stalled. The tulips I started to paint a month ago have almost finished flowering now! I'll have to work from photos. These are a couple of details of my still unfinished painting about springtime joi de vivre. It is four feet wide.




One of my adventures was a trip to Manhattan to meet up with some friends and see museums. I even accidentally timed the visit during the Whitney Biennial which was an adventure into conceptual and performance art. Easier to enjoy was this marvelous roller-printed wallpaper at the Metropolitan Museum. It is by Viennese artist Dagobert Peche and dates from 1921. He called it 'Summer", but I associate tulips with the craziness of spring.

Tulip Mania

I am taking pictures today for a painting of tulips. The garden is full of color!

Funny or Awful

From the pet shop. Snakes are pretty but I wish all animals were herbivores.

Can't Stop Playing with Photoshop

More colors! This is far too much fun.